Good Samaritan Thwarts Market Street Phone Snatching

A phone theft in the middle of one of San Francisco's busiest areas had a happy(ish) ending Friday, when a good Samaritan who saw the robbery tackled one of the thieves.

A 26-year-old woman was standing at Fourth and Market Streets, just steps from the Westfield Centre, at 5:21 Friday night. That's when a teenage male grabbed the phone from her hand and ran off, the San Francisco Police Department says.

The woman chased the teen down and tried to "wrestle" with the thief, according to the SFPD. But during the scrum, the robber passed the phone off to an accomplice, also described as between 15 and 16 years old.

That second thief ran west on Market, SFPD says, the woman closely behind. That's when a "good Samaritan" who saw the pursuit intervened and grabbed the second suspect.

During the physical altercation, the larcenous teen dropped the phone, SFPD says. He then managed to break free from the good Samaritan, and both teens fled in an "unknown direction," and haven't been seen since.

The fight for her device left the woman with "bruised forearms and knees," injuries that are obviously not considered life-threatening. And she has since been reunited with her phone.